Mumbai Marathon

WOW!! Mumbai was too hot for a marathon, 22 degrees at the start and nearing 35 degrees when the ladies finished so it was quite remarkable that we got winning times close to the race records... 2:12 and 2:31 against 2:11 and 2:30. Normally it is a warm 16 degrees at start rising to maybe mid 20's but this was horrible, it was even hot on the motorbike! But another race done and dusted and now I am back in the UK for a few weeks before the RAK Half Marathon (Dubai) in February, that will be so fast, men's list we have around 12-16 guys with sub 60 minutes under their belt and ladies list all are sub 70 minutes and 3 have requested pacer makers at World Record schedule, we will have to wait and see?!

On the domestic front (well nearly) its great to see Matt Pierson's result yesterday in the Brass Monkey (York) Half Marathon, a personal best, a race record and victory by 7 minutes. Matt has been at our training camp in Kericho with Paul Martalleti for the past 3 weeks or so and flew back in on Friday to race, a calculated gamble as often racing within 48 hrs of coming down from altitude can be optimum time, otherwise you need to leave it for 10 days or so. Well it worked and Matt is on the crest of a wave, total respect to the guy for doing what he has done in an attempt to see if he can make the grade.

We talked long and hard in Toronto and on numerous occasions before he went out there about the key importance of 'PATIENCE', yes a foreign word to most of us, but fair is fair and he followed the plan to the letter, restricting himself to once a day easy runs for a few days, then easy doubles and finally light fartlek before taking on the Kenyans in Eldoret XC, 65TH in a field of 150+ is not bad at all, they don't have joggers and veterans in their XC races, and John Mutai (7th 2:16 in Mumbai) was 77th in the previous race in the Kenyan XC Series.

For sure it is a great start and Matt will return to Kenya in a couple of weeks for a longer block before coming back to taper for London, no predictions as yet, but he is giving himself the best chance of a great run in April, fingers crossed. At least the weather here seems to be picking up a bit, and I got a bit of golf at the weekend, but still cold by comparison.

England Athletics championships and competitive opportunities are up on the website, hopefully the other home countries will buy into the 'Home Countries' International Series, I think it gives a good platform for development and chance to race at the right level and hopefully make a few bob in the process, seems to be a good movement in terms of athletes with ambition of making the Commonwealth Games or European Championships. I think the weather in Delhi will be better than Barcelona personally, and the Marathon route is similar to our Airtell Delhi Half (Nov) on a very... very fast and flat surface, so could be a good chance to shine. In my last 3 trips out there I have been looking at security issues and to be honest I don't see anything major for people to worry about, the Indians are most hospitable and as long as you keep to bottled water and avoid obvious food dangers like badly washed salad/fruits it will be fine.

Guess that's all for now then, I am trying to play catch up on emails and events, so more to come later....